FCC Proposes $260,000 in Pirate Radio Penalties
The full FCC approved five notices of apparent liability against pirate broadcasters proposing a total of $260,000 in penalties, according to NALs in Thursday’s Daily Digest. The NALs were approved 4-1, with Commissioner Nathan Simington dissenting. Simington has said he…
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will dissent from all proceedings involving monetary forfeitures until the FCC responds to the U.S. Supreme Court’s SEC v. Jarkesy decision (see 2409060054). The agency proposed penalties of $60,000 for Carlos Alberto Vazquez of Painesville, Ohio; for Wilfredo Ayala of Hartford, Connecticut; and for Sheldon Morgan of Hartford and his company, Morgan Media. The FCC proposed $40,000 penalties each for James Baran of Geneva-on-the-Lake, Ohio, and Efrain Gonzalez of Waterbury, Connecticut. All the targets are connected with addresses where Enforcement Bureau field agents measured unauthorized radio broadcasts, and several of the pirate operators posted to social media platforms of videos themselves operating their stations, the NALs said.